Was it plugged in/turned on when it was dropped? Was it unplugged and not attached to any power source? The reason that I ask is because, if it was not powered up, then there is little danger of platter or head damage. Most drives since the first ones, have had a robust locking mechanism to prevent a drive from being damaged while it is in the “parked head” position. That is to say that the read/write heads that are attached to the arms of the mechanism, are locked into a side holder, away from the fragile platter surfaces. The disks were designed that way so that moving a laptop or external drive would have the least impact on a hard drive if the unit was dropped or jostled. That being said, if you dropped the unit while it was powered up, then it could have sustained catastrophic damage.
But either way, if the unit was dropped hard enough, the semi-fragile electronics inside the case could have been damaged or dislodged. This happens more often than most people believe. As such, if you, or anyone you know and trust, has decent mechanical skills, good eyes/a hands-free magnifier, and steady hands, you would be no worse off than now simply to open the case as gently as possible, look for damaged or loose wires or parts, replace any dislodged parts, and replace anything that you may be able to find at a parts warehouse, if necessary.
My best guess is on loose parts if it was off, a damaged drive assemble or “air bearings” if it was on, or a combination of the above. If you do open the case to find simply a loose connection, you should be able to use the drive as normal once the parts are put back into place. This has been a specialty of mine for over twenty years, so if you have irreplaceable data on the drive, the recovery price from a decent data-recovery business, usually runs about $1,100.00 a drive, or if severely mechanically damaged, about the same price per platter side!
It is very expensive, but I did a data retrieval once for a guy who stated nothing more than that the data was irreplaceable. Once I recovered the data, he used what I had obtained to finalize a $2,000,000.00 (two MILLION dollar) deal! I’d guess you could say that it was worth the price for him.
1-we have to make sure it is 100% hardware problem (meanwhile it’s -almost- obvious), to make sure install paragon hard disk manager (free download and use) try to enter the partition/ driver, if it’s hardware problem it will notify you about that. 2- now we have to know if the hard disk is still functioning.
Does the light turn on? Does it produce sound? If yes, you can make those -segments- in which did not get damaged to work and restore your data, but will only work via Linux operating system, so try to mount it on a Linux OS, and check the disk from there, it will repair it and restore even if hardware damaged.but be notified that the segments that were corrupted caused of hardware problem will never be restored, and even those if were to be restored will cost you a fortune to restore cause from this point, it’s beyond software and bits area. 3- the hard disk external contain 2 parts: the hardisk/ the circuit, you can try to open the cover and change the circuit (easy as lego parts), maybe the circuit is damaged not the hard disk it self. The price for the circuit is less then 5% of the total external price. Be more careful next time, and good luck with the repair issue.
This post tells why files are not showing in external hard drive from 5 aspects and it shows how to unhide files here safely. We will now see the files/folders with hidden attributes. Step 4: Type 'attrib [name of file/folder]. It can be applied in both Windows & Mac and will be automatically detected in a few seconds. Then users can use.
Hi There, Hard Disk is very fragile component so be careful while using it. You can check your hard drive by connecting in different PORT/SYSTEM. It may be detected by the other system. Else, Check if the drive is physically damaged. Sometimes the inner parts such as platter/head etc damaged internally but we can not see. So stop hit and try with your hard drive otherwise you’ll also loss your data.
In the situation You have not any option except buying another hard drive. If the data stored in the external hard drive is important then you can recover with the help of. Know more about a hard drive not detected at. No, it’s a deader. For repair, you’d have to send it back to WD and pay more than the cost of a new drive, probably much more. Your best hope is that you can get a data-recovery utility that can coax the disc to work long enough to scrape your data off onto another disc. But if the mechanical parts are in bad enough shape, even that might be impossible.
I’ve had good success with the iRecover utility, but I’ve never tried it with a disc that’s physically damaged. This is probably needless to say, now, but hard drives are really not all that sturdy anymore because of the r eally tiny tolerances require to shoehorn terabytes of data into an enclosure standardised when the biggest drives held maybe a gigabyte.
My Hard Drive Dropped – Now What? Through our experience saving data from dropped hard drives, we have found the very first thing everyone does after dropping their hard drive or laptop, is the worst thing anyone can do. IF YOUR DATA IS VALUABLE TO YOU, DON’T BE TEMPTED TO MAKE THIS CRUCIAL MISTAKE Usually when we get to tell people this very valuable fact, it’s too late (please help us share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter) If you are reading this, there is a 95% chance that you or someone you know has an external hard drive that hit the floor, and now it doesn’t work correctly. It’s probably, clicking, scraping, spinning without access to your data, or beeping. The most natural thing to do after dropping a hard drive or laptop, is to turn it on to see if it still works. SERT has proven the chance of full recovery is 100% higher if you have a open your drive in a certified clean room and check inside. It’s important to confirm the condition of the internal moving parts, before turning it on to check if it still works.
The pictures below show what can happen to the read write heads in a dropped drive. (Click the image to enlarge) A full explanation of how we arrived our conclusion is below. From our dropped hard drive quote request form:. “Picked up computer forgetting that the drive was attached and it fell to the carpeted floor. Now it won’t show up on desktop and shows flashing white light and sounds like it’s not spinning up. Some kind of faint beeping and humming sounds.”. “I have a, I think it was dropped now what?”.
“External drive fell from a desk. After that didn’t show on My computer”. “My laptop fell off the table, and it won’t boot. I need dropped laptop hard drive recovery”.
“External hard drive fell off computer desk and when plugged back in makes a beeping noise”. “I had my laptop on my bed and my external Hard Drive on the floor. The height from the drop was 27 inches away in measurement. While I was sleeping the laptop slide down and fell off the floor and hit the Hard Drive. Now I’m hearing clicking noises when i plug it in my computer”. “It fell from the top of my desktop computer, and will power on, but is not recognized by the computer, and makes the sound that it’s trying to load, but you soon hear a clicking type sound.”. “The external hdd fell down accidentally and started making the beeping noise.
Need dropped”. “I dropped my WD External Harddrive from about waist high. It fell to a hard surface and the entire plastic cover came off.” This is one of the most frustrating data recovery quote requests for us. Because almost 100% of the time, the client has already taken that drive, and plugged it in to see if it still works.
They usually get a ““. This is the worst thing anyone can do to see if the drive is damaged, or conversely to see if it still works.
In the picture below you can see the heads stuck, and bent on the parking ramp. If this happened to your drive, and you turn it on, those arms will drag the bent metal across the platters scratching them.
This will cause your data to be unrecoverable. Here’s why: The inside of a hard drive is sort of like a record player. There are three major-basic components of the inside of a hard drive:.
Records (platters). Arm (actuator arm). Needle (read/write head) These components must be in good working order, not damaged in any way, and a professional with the right equipment can determine what state these parts are in and ultimately save your data. DO NOT OPEN THE DRIVE YOURSELF AND CHECK OR DO ANYTHING TO THESE PARTS OF THE DRIVE This is the second worse event we hear about when clients report a dropped drive. They have opened the drive, potentially moved the arm and heads off the platter. Some drives parking place are in the center of the platter, and the arm actually belongs there.
On others, they park on a ramp. Moving any of these parts unnecessarily or incorrectly will cause damage to the platter, the head slider, and make your data unrecoverable. If your dropped hard drive is clicking or making other noises: It’s worth it to pay a professional service to open your drive to confirm the status it’s internal parts. If you hear clicking or other noises, there is a really good chance the internal components have been damaged by the force of the impact in the following ways:. The actuator arm has come off the parking ramp and hit the platters.
The heads are damaged in some way (lightly or catastrophically). The heads have hit the platter and become stuck. The actuator arm has become out of alignment.
The spindle has been damaged from impact. Read/write head sliders have come off The PROBLEM occurs as power is applied to the drive. When the drive gets the signal to start, all of these components begin to work, the platter spins, the actuator arm moves, and the read/write heads begin to index. After impact, the result can be likened to sticking your finger in a moving fan. Once the head touches the surface of your platters it will scratch them and your chances of successful data recovery decrease by 95%.
![Dropped My Passport For Mac And Now It Dropped My Passport For Mac And Now It](/uploads/1/2/5/5/125561310/178457943.jpg)
Call for a consultation BEFORE you power on your drive after a fall. It can save you your data, and thousands of dollars. What kind of technician did you take it to?
The fact that the drive fell on tile, then was plugged in and powered on several times, is a good indicator alone that there is a high probability of a serious, physical problem with the drive. Add to that, the fact a “technician” has now done the same thing, and possibly worse, without (i’m assuming) a clean room, or inspecting the drive for damaged parts first, definitely reduces the possibility the data will be recoverable.
Additionally, there is no possible way to truthfully tell you if we are able to fix the drive, without physically having it to evaluate. You are more than welcome to send it in for evaluation. Please fill out the quote request form for more information! Hi, very informative read & I did exactly what I shouldn’t have done & switched it on, I knew know better at the time. I have since sent my hard drive to 2 different data recovery specialists & neither could recover my data. The last company sent me the below report:- The damage to read/write heads was most probably caused by the misaligned positioning of the head assembly when the hard drive was not powered.
In addition to this small pieces of dirt and dust were detected on the individual reader heads. The actuator arm and read/write heads were chemically cleaned and re-examined to maximize the chance of re-alignment. The arm was then mechanically altered to prevent further alignment problems and the read/write heads were re-assembled on to the disk. Unfortunately, subsequent diagnostics confirmed that the repairs made were unsuccessful. An identical hard disk was sourced and subsequently ordered and used for spare parts in order to attempt the recovery of your data. The read/write heads were completely removed from the newly ordered disk and were examined to ensure they were in working order. This second set of read/write heads were then assembled into the original disk replacing the existing malfunctioned heads and carefully aligned.
Diagnostics confirmed that this procedure was also unsuccessful. Further analysis of the medias platter surface revealed inconsistencies of the magnetic properties which could potentially be linked to the contact made between the head and platter surface resulting from the initial ‘head crash’. This may have been caused by one of several factors ranging from environmental impacts (e.g. A drop or bang) up to temperature expansion of certain components. Due to this preventative damage caused we were unable to initialise the heads long enough for a forensic scan to take place before further damage was caused to the replacement read/write heads. Unfortunately, as we are unable to help with your data recovery needs at present, there is no further action that can be made.
My question is, is this worth trying a 3rd time with another company? Sounds like the company’s attempt to use the same damaged parts could have caused the drive to be unrecoverable, that is of course only if the drive wasn’t initially damaged to that point already. At this point it’s been in too many hands, and is at least 75% less likely to be recoverable because of that. We would never try to use the same set of original heads that we know are damaged, nor would we try to bend back something on those heads that was bent. The space between the heads and the platters is too minute to have any room for error.
The one question you asked is most important: “So what are the possibility of internal damage.” This is the million dollar question, the only one that matters, and frequently the case. If the data is valuable you will want to hire a professional to help you figure this out. This requires a a few things to get started: a clean room, knowledge of the type of damage that can happen to a hard drive (especially in this situation), experience and technology to fix it – image it – then recover the data. This is something anyone with a computer should read BEFORE they ever have this problem that pretty much will happen to ALL of us eventually. My first time was my laptop fell a total of 2 feet onto a think rug and the first thing I did was try to reboot and I don’t remember exactly what happened but it did not reboot. The only good thing is that it was the original HDD so I replaced it with a new SSD and it sure is better and my computers all run 24/7 doing data processing and never get a break unless the power goes out or I have to do the occasional reboot after a Update. Since then I had a desktop that fell 3 feet onto a carpet TWICE.first time I caught it just before it hit the floor and after hours of work I finally got it to let me partition the OS again to get it running and it was running greatTHEN the next time I didn’t catch it and it hit the carpet (long story) but the first thing I did was try to reboot since this time I saw nothing on the monitor.well NOW I have a feeling I shouldn’t have tried the reboot and if I read this I might have just tried to remove the cover and see if it was the obvious problem that you showed here.
Samson, It is not recommended AT ALL for ANY REASON to open the HD. Nor is it wise to encourage others who have less experience than you do to do the same (which is what this kind of post does). There is no experience (IT, computer repair, electronic engineering) that automatically helps you, or puts you in another category when it comes to hard drives repair.
They are their own beast, and most recoveries also require very expensive technology made specifically for HD repair. If you have never done a head swap, then you will not know the peculiarities that go along with it, nor will you have the technology that is often required to additionally perform steps to get the drive to respond the way you would want, ultimately to access the data. Most hard drive recovery engineers endure extensive training, and have made at least 5-10 failed head swaps before they got their first one right.
If you do not need the data back, feel free to open whatever hard drives you want to play with them, but don’t expect them to ever work again! Once certain damage has been done to the drive it cannot be undone. We have had drives with many failed user attempts come in the shop that will never have their data recovered because of it.
Hello, My laptop fell and got very slow. Boot file not found. Will a Format help in making the drive reusable? There was 2 partitions, one of them works fine and i was able to recovered all the data out of it the other one with contained windows and unable to launch/be accessed What can i do?
I have already backed up all the other working partitions and now im doing a totall format (total zeros writing and departitioning process) Kindly let me know if this will make the drive healthy again. PS: if there is a way to identify the scratched sectors of the hard drive then i could probably do a partition where i will not let my hard attempt to write on. KINDLY REPLY!
Helloe, Pls i need your help more than ever! I use an Imac desktop. I have never had issues with it until recently when my sierra crashed and i reinstalled. Then it crashed again. So i continued using my windows bootcamp which has a partition size of 600 gig while the mac has 300 gig, the whole harddisk is 1 terra.
Now as i was booting into my windows 10, it told me to do a disk scan to fix errors while booting and i said yes. But it got stucked on 0 percent. Then next thing it said disk recovery error. And went off then i tried to reboot but it wont boot. The hard disk starts to make a funny sound.
So i removed it to slave it to an external reader. But my system cant see it atall.
Once i plug it spins then 3 secs after it starts to make sounds for like 7 times and it goes down again. I need my datas on it deperately. The hard disk did not fall atall. What should i do please?
I have 1Tb Toshiba Canvio Connect II. It’s just three days old. I dropped it earlier this afternoon on a hard tiled floor. I had it connected to our TV and when I was about to remove it, it fell directly on the floor. I was not able to try it on my laptop to check if it still working as I was about to go out and I brought it with me. When I went to my friend’s house, she used it and inserted it on her computer. At first, she was able to open the files.
I even saw all the folders I created but as she was selecting files and trying to open it, it was loading. Had to remove and insert it again twice.
The computer was really too slow that we decided maybe it was the computer (it was a bit old) or there are just too many files in the external hard drive that was causing the delay to load files. Finally, when I arrived home, I tried to check it and suddenly I cannot open it. I had it renamed under my name before and now it says “Unlabeled Volume 4” which I don’t even understand. And when I tried opening it, its says something like it cannot be opened because it is corrupted. I don’t know what to do. I wanna retrieve all my files. I don’t know if the cause of this was bec I dropped it hard or was it infected with computer virus?
Please help me. Btw, it does not have any funny sounds when it is turned on. The light turns on when connected to the laptop it just that I cannot anymore access my files because it has been corrupted. Will I be able to recover my files again? Does it still have a chance?
I am really worried because aside from it being brand new, it was given by my brother-in-law. I hope you can help me. This seems like a scare tactic to me.
How in the world are you to assess the fact that your hard drive is no longer working unless you plug it in? I’m not going to spend thousands of dollars assessing a hard drive right after it dropped just to be told it’s fine, and I could have plugged it in right after the fact. I recently dropped my passport ultra. It’s making the clicking sound. But most people I talk to tell me that as long as I don’t plug it in ANYMORE, and get it to a specialist, I should be able to recover it. Or at least most of it.
You can’t know a hard drive doesn’t work unless you test it. Your drive is clicking now because you turned it on after it dropped. How much of a scare tactic could the information provided here be? Now you have to send it to a professional anyways, except NOW your drive may have been damaged permanently because it was turned on after the drop. Which means your data may not be recoverable. If you had not turned it on and sent it to a company like us with a clean room, it’s almost 100% GUARANTEE to get your data back. Now you have 50/50 chance.
Scare tactic = NO Truth and GOOD information = YES If you want to take the chance then plug it in. If you DONT want to take chances send it to someone with a clean room who has a policy for dropped drives that includes inspections before turning the drive on. Only way to be 100% SURE of NOT CAUSING MORE DAMAGE (possibly permanent). Mine is similar to this. Laptop dropped, screen froze, did a cold shutdown.
Powered the laptop up but came with a boot recovery option, ran it, too forever,plugged it to another windows desktop as a slave to fix errors of any, the desktop failed to boot. I powered it down, powered it up but used ubuntu, it came on disk is visible but taking a long time to read.
When I start a copy the transfer rate is in bits and after a chunk is tranfered a read error comes up. No professional data recovery in the country I know of.insomnia.
I recently took my external hard drive to a local data recovery company after dropping it from my desk. I did the worst thing I could by plugging it in a few times to attempt a miracle.
I didn’t know that I was doing more damage. They opened it up to find the arm was broken and there were small particles inside. They quoted me $975 for maybe 20% recovery. This doesn’t include the additional $320 for a drive to use for parts.
Does this seem legitimate? The drive itself cost under $100 originally. Why can’t I get one just like it for them to part out? Hello dear friend, I live with my family (3 people and 10 pets). I was performing a backup from an important notebook 700GB storage drive full of important family memories, pictures, important videos and stuff (to a newer identical one) and went to sleep in my bedroom wen something happened by accident without my knowledge in the HDs room (someone disconected and dropped the important HD, or one of my cats maybe, I don’t know what happened yet, I will figure it out later). Wen I woke up I’ve found the important HD disconected with a little sign of a drop in the HD protection frame, and my computer showing a message of error in the 22%. I connected the HD again with the cable and it started to spin but with a click pattern sound, nothing appeared in the computer just like nothing attached, and then I disconected it and heard the disk slowing down and then a sound of something scratching in the end.
I connected again but this time with any sign of a spin, just the sound of the HD trying to start up. Then I found your website with the best advices and all the amazing professional stuff and I’m afraid because I did what I shouldn’t. I’m from Brasil and I don’t know what to do now to recover my files (I was thinking about the possibility of a change of disks between the new identical drive). Do you have any kind of advice to me? Is it possible to send to you?
Do you know some trust professionals from here? Best Regards. Im vhan from the philippines.
My hard disk has been broken.and i think that its the slider that cause my hard disk unreadable.im an ordinary teacher and im very frustrated because all the files,pictures and memories are all in that harddisk.can you help me recover all data that i have in that harddisk,please.your office is miles away from ours.do you know any nearest recovery data company like yours here in the philippines that could help me.?or is it just your company that fix the harddisk parts.?can you tell me what should i do?? I really2 want to recover my files?? And how much will it cost??